Car Hire Tips UK

I recently traveled from Leeds to London on the train as I wanted a nice stress free journey, and ideally needed to get some work done on my laptop while I was traveling. Having a meeting in 4 hours time, I took a train that would arrive, leaving me half an hour to spare for the final leg across London.

Although the train ticket was more expensive than hiring and fuelling a small car to do the same journey, I thought with the journey times being so similar it would be an ideal opportunity to catch up on a bit of work on a stress free journey.

The ideal was shattered early on. I arrived for my train and was pleased to see it was waiting for me, on time and all ready to go. However, when I tried to find a seat with a table that was another matter. It wasn’t that there weren’t any; they were just all plastered with “Reserved” notices. A little disgruntled I settled down in a slightly more cramped single row seat.

Pulling down the little seat back table in front of me I realized that it wasn’t big enough to accommodate my modest (15” screen) laptop so up it went again and my lap really was the only place to use. Oh well, there was a plug to my side so providing I could get comfy, at least I knew I wouldn’t run out of juice.

The train set off and I began to work, trying out several yoga moves to either stop the pins and needles setting in or avoid the glare of the sun (yes, you remember that day too?). Suffice to say it wasn’t going great. After about half an hour I gave up, consoling myself that I could at least have a little nap and arrive fresh for my meeting later on.

Just outside Doncaster station the wagons ground to a halt. And there we sat for about twenty minutes before a voice came over the intercom apologizing for the delay while an “incident” was occurring in the Doncaster area. I never did find out what that “incident” was.

So a further half an hour later we arrive in a very busy Doncaster where we’re asked to change trains for reasons unknown. It dawns on me that I’m going to be late for my meeting so I try to find out my new ETA from a nearby rail worker. He has no idea and advises me not to trust what’s written on the computer screens either as they’re on the blink. Apparently the only reliable source of information is blaring out from the distorted station speakers.

The “incident” continues; the station gets fuller as other trains arrive. About an hour later a train for London is on the platform and a sweaty, angry horde of commuter clamber onboard in search of a seat. I refuse the cattle train option, reasoning that if the “incident” is over another train should be along soon.

Sure enough, after another ten minutes there’s another train going my way and this one is a little less cramped so I climb on. Finding one of the few available seats I take a deep breath and work out how late I’m going to be for the meeting. It all adds up to just over two hours so I join the throng of people ringing through to let people know when they’ll arrive.
The meeting was scheduled for two hours and other participants needed to be elsewhere after so it looked like my day was pretty much ruined at this point. Having no other reason to continue the journey I got off at Peterborough, swapped platforms and headed home.

Now I know I was unlucky, I know that trains sometimes run on-time too, but I couldn’t escape that feeling of helplessness that there was nothing I could do to escape my fate. At least, stuck in traffic, I can plan alternate routes, take short cuts, avoid traffic jams. On balance, next time I’ll take the car.